The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-08-07
How Two Husbands Struggle
for One Wife.
A BOY WITH TWO FATHERS.
VaEaries of the Marriage Laws
ofNew York State.


generous to fault, always ready t.
neglect his own business to serve
friend, and until recently one of tn,
unluckiest men ever met. He wa,
barely 81 when he married Clara
Neither had cent. But they loved on.
another like two turtle-doves, and were
never unhappy. They often had very
hard lines indeed, for they were gentle
and proud. Dick never got situation
without losing it almost Immediately
by trying to help some one who was in
trouble. Once or twice he resolved
never to do it again, and then he lost
his next situation because he didn't
For long time 1t had been only bread
and the rent, and not always both
together, when one day he received an
| offer from cousin in Nevada to Join
him in venture and Clara received
notice that her aunt had left her SIS, 600
Dick had long been discouraged
although he had never let Clara know
it. "You take the 5000 and open a
clearinghouse" he said to her, land
l will go to Nevada and see if l can t
escape this Il-luck that seems to
pursue me here" She cried, of course
but for the first time she found Dick
bent on having q way that was not hers.
The secret of his endurance was that he
wouldn't live on his wife's money.
He went to Nevada. She hired house
on Livingston Street and then moved to
Willow. He wrote regularly for three
months. Then his letters ceased.
Her virtue was like that of every
woman who keeps boarders. Her capital
was slowly eaten up. Before five years
bad passed it was all gone AMI debts
began TO press her; the rent had become
nightmare and the butchers bill was
a burden.
One of her first boarders was William
Jones, aged about 40. He was clever
we'll read, gentle-mannered; but he
had monomania. With the strength
of a bull and and the constitution of a
mule, he imagined himself an invalid
and dying of nervous debility. On this
account he resigned his seat in the
Produce Exchange, placed the collec-
ton of his rents in the hands of an
agent, hired q male nurse and gently
resigned himself to die in Ciara's second
floor front and hall bedroom, for which
he paid $50 per week. Clara believed
implicitly in his fad and petted and
made much of 1.-The poor dying man. :"
AS the years rolled on and he grew
stouter instead of thinner, her belief
never wavered. Her sympathetic at
tentions developed into routine that
at last became second nature. Apart
from the hypochondriasm, Jones was
very pleasant company. The woman
called him charming" and their hus-
bands admitted that he was "a good
fellow" At the same time they pre-
ferred him at a distance-from their
wives.
When CIara's financial difficulties
came to his knowledge he asked her to
marry hln and end her worry. He was
worth about $4,000, invested IN good
tenement property, paying from 10 to II
per cent, and he offered to settle 1t ali
on her, Internationally. Ayear passed
before she would listen to his PROPOSE
ton to be left a rich widow in very
short time. He showed no invalidism
in his wooing, which was OF the most
vigorous kind, but his health never
was worse" His hours were numbered,
he told me, in confidence one day. They
might have been, but the number WAS
an excessively large one-larger than
any ordinary mans.
Clara's family highly approved the
match, and did all they could to help it
along, To her objections that Dick
might not be dead, her brother Ia
lawyer pointed to the marriage law:
Section G. If any person whose husband or
wife shall have absented himself or herself
for fhe space of five successive years, with
out being known to such person to be living
during that time, shall marry during the
lifetime of such absent husband or wife, the
marriage shall be void only from the time
that its nulllty snall pc Rronounceu ny
court of competent authority.
"You cannot get divorce he told
her This marriage will be lawful so
long as it remains in force. There is
no reason why you should not enter
" They were married about three
months after the five years had ex-
nired. Jones making q will bequeathing
all his property to his wife. Fhe old
boarders were not disturbed, but new
ones were not taken. The marriage
made but little difference in the house
hold arrangement, and it remained one
of the most charming clearinghouse
on the Heights, where the women never
quarrelled and the men never sat up
till o'clock playing poker. CINE reason
for the latter was because they both
worked on a morning newspaper, ana
didn't get home till q. n.y.
Clara was working on the sewing
machine in her mothers dining. room
one morning about seven month after,
when Richard walked in, the same I'M
lucky fellow that he was when he left.
A gasp, a little scream, and they were
hugging to make up for the six years
loss. 1t was two hours before Clara
remembered her second marriage, and
it was her mothers What Will
William say2" that recalled IL. The
mother told Dick the story.
That's all right" he said. You are
not the least bit to blame, Clara, but
am no Enoch Arden and I'll go home
with you and give William his quietus.
Then we'll be happy ever after"
Jones showed no surprise when Smith
explained who he was. II have been
expecting you daily for several months.
1t is usual for things to happen that are
not wanted. Please understand that L
haven't your wife, but my own. Clara